Wake Forest Baptist Reaches $114 Million in NIH Funds

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center gained nearly $10 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, reaching $114,768,124 and ranking 36th overall among 125 American medical schools.

The Department of Public Health Sciences remained second in the nation among similar departments, bringing in nearly $28 million. The Department of Physiology and Pharmacology was third among similar departments, with more than $16 million in funding.

“In today’s environment, increasing funding by $10 million is a significant accomplishment for any institution,” said Sally A. Shumaker, Ph.D., associate dean for research. “I am proud of the hard work and contribution by our faculty and their commitment to research excellence.”

Eight other departments ranked among the top 25 nationally within their specialties: Cancer Biology, 14th, Obstetrics and Gynecology, 21st, Radiologic Sciences and Anesthesia, both 22nd, Pathology and Surgical Sciences, both 23rd, and Family and Community Medicine, 25th.

Shumaker, who was named associate dean for research earlier this month, added, “I look forward to working with our faculty in the upcoming years to continue to improve our standing nationally. More importantly, we will work to help our faculty members continue to achieve during a period when national resources for biomedical research are increasingly competitive.”

She congratulated the Department of Public Health Sciences on being able to maintain a No. 2 ranking. “I am also extremely proud of my colleagues in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology who met multiple challenges and were able to improve their ranking from No. 5 to No.3. The Department of Internal Medicine has progressively improved in rank during the last four years, achieving its present rank of 42. These are truly remarkable achievements.”

The new figures showed the state of North Carolina, which ranks 11th in population, ranked seventh among the states in research support from NIH, with $938.9 million. The totals include all institutions that received NIH money, not just the state’s four medical schools.

Winston-Salem, 109th in population according to the census bureau, ranks 43rd in research funding from NIH. Besides Wake Forest Baptist, Winston-Salem State University, the Reynolda campus of Wake Forest University, the Southeast Cancer Control Consortium, Kucera Pharmaceutical Co. and others are included in the NIH total for Winston-Salem.

About Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center: Wake Forest Baptist is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. It is licensed to operate 1,282 acute care, psychiatric, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and is consistently ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report.

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